Juarez 2007

Summer, June, 22-30, 2007

What is Juarez?
Juarez is a Mexican town, across the river from El Paso, TX. We work through an organization called Casas por Cristo to spend an unforgettable week building homes for disadvantaged families! Webster Gardens has gone to Juarez every year since 1999, and we’ve taken 5-7 other churches with us since 2001.

What we’re doing in Juarez:
While staying at a Mexican church, our construction teams go out each day with a Casas por Cristo foreman and each build a home from the ground up for a Mexican family in need in the Anapra Valley. Meanwhile, our VBS team goes from site to site to lead a children’s program for local children.

Where we stay*:
Rose of Sharon Church, located in the city if Juarez, acts as our home base, where we eat, sleep and worship together. We worship together each evening and set out each morning for our respective construction or VBS sites.

*We drive down in vans, a 1300 mile trip each way, and stay in Amarillo and New Mexico on the way down and in Oklahoma City on the way back, all in local Lutheran churches.

TYPICAL DAILY SCHEDULE:
· 6:30 a.m. Wake Up and breakfast
· 7:15 a.m. head out to sites
· 11:00 a.m. Lunch and siesta
· 2:00 p.m. head back to work sites
· 8:00 p.m. Return from sites and Dinner
· 9:30 p.m. Evening Chapel
· 11:00 p.m. Lights Out

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE:
We invite any student entering 9th grade through freshmen in college. This event requires maturity, genuineness, sacrifice, and a servant's heart.

HOW IT WORKS:
A good deal of the trip happens before we even leave. Students need to fill out necessary paperwork and documentation to cross into Mexico, and our team meets 3 times to train and build community. Participants MUST be available for the 3 Juarez meetings, usually on Sundays after the late service. Those meetings will be determined at the first team meeting.

CONDITIONS:
The team will spend the time in Mexico sleeping on the floor of Rose of Sharon, with areas divided by gender. The church is a gated compound that is closed at night. Meals are provided by the “Barnabas Team”, made up of our own members. There are usually 5-6 working toilets in the church, and at least one (probably an outhouse) at each work site. 2 showers service the 120 participants.


HOW MUCH:
Total $340 (including $50 deposit)
(We are working on new concentrated fundraisers for 2004-2005, students can expect to raise most if not all of these funds. More info will be available at the informational meeting)

Money you should bring:
Varies from person to person, here are some guidelines*:
1) You’ll be responsible for a total of 10 meals on the trip, so $50-55 should cover that.
2) There is a large indoor market nearby where we go on Wednesday afternoon. The market sells every conceivable souvenir. Blankets go for around $10, necklaces, jewelry, and wallets for $2-$10. Haggling is encouraged to get a good price.
3) There is a small ice cream shop and corner store next to church. prices are lower in Mexico than what you’d pay in the U.S. $10-15 should cover any snacking you want to do.
4) We ask that you save an offering of $10 for the family you’ll be building the home for.

*The official (Webster Gardens) suggestion for the average Juarez participant is $100, and if you buy a blanket for every cousin, expect to need more. You could earn that by mowing 5 lawns in the spring. An adult leader can keep your money saf for you if you have trouble controlling your spending.






Special Needs: We rely on our dedicated adult leaders to drive vans (2 adults per van is optimum), oversee students at the church and at the work sites. Adult leaders need to have a heart for students and encourage them as they build homes and teach children, rather than do that for them. We also have a “Barnabas” team that prepares meals, celebrates birthdays, and runs snacks out to work sites.